Grand Prix Rejects

Hi.
Does anyone know of a good program to simulate races (mostly in terms of laptimes) with, without necessarily displaying the races taking place visually? The reason I ask is that I want to simulate some fantasy races, but my computer has limited processing and graphics power and I don't really need to actually see the races in the first place.

I'm thinking of a program where you enter data for driver strength, car strength, reliability, etc. and then the program simulates a given number of laps on a given track. (I'm not sure how a program like that would simulate stuff like collisions, but whatever.)

Does such a program exist? Anyone have experience with this sort of thing? Please help!

Sometimes when using GP2Edit (it's more of a GP2 - Grand Prix 2 for clarification - modding utillity) I could do that. There's a function there.

Don't know if this could be of any help?

FMecha wrote:Sometimes when using GP2Edit (it's more of a GP2 - Grand Prix 2 for clarification - modding utillity) I could do that. There's a function there.

I've thought of that, but GP2 only supports 26-28 cars. I'm looking for something that supports at least 30 cars, up to 60 would be preferable.

dr-baker wrote:Don't know if this could be of any help?

That looks more like something where you are one driver and the rest is played by the computer?

Waris wrote:

dr-baker wrote:Don't know if this could be of any help?

That looks more like something where you are one driver and the rest is played by the computer?

Yeah. I just read the bit about simulating races, and these are fantasy races, but I suppose I then failed to read the rest of what you wanted properly. Guess it just not what you really had in mind, then?

dr-baker wrote:

Waris wrote:

dr-baker wrote:Don't know if this could be of any help?

That looks more like something where you are one driver and the rest is played by the computer?

Yeah. I just read the bit about simulating races, and these are fantasy races, but I suppose I then failed to read the rest of what you wanted properly. Guess it just not what you really had in mind, then?

No, I'm looking for something where I can tell the program the number of drivers, their strength, etc. and have it simulate a race for me. My Racing Career is probably a good simulator, but the problem is I cannot decide what drivers are in the race, except my own. I'm looking for something like, rFactor in text form...

Excuse me for bumping this thread... I've found this program called TORCS and it's quite good, but it doesn't have text-only simulation and the graphics are too heavy for my computer. Something like that would be perfect, except I want to be able to add cars myself. Anyone?

Can anyone find a good website to download GP2? Looks great, just need to download it. (I've tried eMule, but it's confusing as heck. What's a Kad network?)

JeremyMcClean wrote:Can anyone find a good website to download GP2? Looks great, just need to download it. (I've tried eMule, but it's confusing as heck. What's a Kad network?)

How can you even think about using eMule in 2011? Go sit in a corner in shame while your PC downloads it here.

Klon wrote:

JeremyMcClean wrote:Can anyone find a good website to download GP2? Looks great, just need to download it. (I've tried eMule, but it's confusing as heck. What's a Kad network?)

How can you even think about using eMule in 2011? Go sit in a corner in shame while your PC downloads it here.

Before I do, do I need the GP2 editor to edit any details? (Such as turning a drivers' name, or using a different chassis colour)

JeremyMcClean wrote:Before I do, do I need the GP2 editor to edit any details? (Such as turning a drivers' name, or using a different chassis colour)

Well ... it depends. If you only want to change names, you do that in-game. For everything else, i.e. new cars, different performance, you need GP2edit.

Ok, so I got it downloaded... only problem is that I don't know how to move the car. Sorry, I'm undergoing a brain fade here...

JeremyMcClean wrote:Ok, so I got it downloaded... only problem is that I don't know how to move the car. Sorry, I'm undergoing a brain fade here...

Wut?

If I understand your problem correctly, you need to press "a" to accelerate, "y" (od "z" if you don't have QWERTZ) brake and "," or "." (god knows what keys are there in QWERTY) to steer left or right.

Klon wrote:

JeremyMcClean wrote:Ok, so I got it downloaded... only problem is that I don't know how to move the car. Sorry, I'm undergoing a brain fade here...

Wut?

If I understand your problem correctly, you need to press "a" to accelerate, "y" (od "z" if you don't have QWERTZ) brake and "," or "." (god knows what keys are there in QWERTY) to steer left or right.

You got my problem correctly. Thanks!

Geez, I have been embarrassingly awful at problem solving...

JeremyMcClean wrote:

Klon wrote:

JeremyMcClean wrote:Ok, so I got it downloaded... only problem is that I don't know how to move the car. Sorry, I'm undergoing a brain fade here...

Wut?

If I understand your problem correctly, you need to press "a" to accelerate, "y" (od "z" if you don't have QWERTZ) brake and "," or "." (god knows what keys are there in QWERTY) to steer left or right.

You got my problem correctly. Thanks!

Geez, I have been embarrassingly awful at problem solving...

Don't worry, this happened to me the first time I tried playing GP2 (or F1 Grand Prix, can't remember) and I stopped playing for quite a while.

It may be very, very late but here's the solution: xkoranate.

FMecha wrote:It may be very, very late but here's the solution: xkoranate.

I'm actually in fact using that for it now, but it has a couple of faults, such as how you can't set the starting grid, and things like yellow flags and stuff aren't taken into account. Also the rating system for cars and drivers is a bit weird. But I've been using it and thus far it seems decent enough.

It's just that in the future, I would like to make this more realistic and therefore I'd be in need of a game that actually, you know, visually simulates races.

By the way, in case anyone is interested (I guess not), I've updated the main page a bit with information about where the whole thing comes from, as well as some of the championships in it. I was actually planning to run this season as a test season and then open up entries to people on this forum for some of the championships next season. But obviously that'd be conditional on people actually expressing interest in it. And I still need to figure out some things about the storyline, such as when it actually takes place... anyway, have a look if you're bored: http://jacfantasyracing.thegamewiki.com/wiki/Main_Page (and if you do, please tell me if the background is blue. Thanks.)

It looks facinating, but a lot of work. 19 championships?! I'm impressed.

Waris wrote: have a look if you're bored: http://jacfantasyracing.thegamewiki.com/wiki/Main_Page (and if you do, please tell me if the background is blue. Thanks.)

No, the background is NOT blue. It is white.

Your idea for the WRC has already been set in motion here. Because of the nature of TM, everybody sets their times on their own, but all times are combined into a single event and run side by side, so you can watch every car going head
As for cars, there's ones as old as Sandro Munari's Stratos HF, to as new as Solberg's Fiesta RS and Sordo's Mini. So I may have inadvertently beat you to it.

This sounds pretty ambitious, but do you simulate all series with Xkoranate? If you do so, could you tell me how you assign the skills to every driver?

BTW, one thing Xkoranate clearly lacks is a proper database with all drivers. Maybe we should start creating one...

kostas22 wrote:Your idea for the WRC has already been set in motion here. Because of the nature of TM, everybody sets their times on their own, but all times are combined into a single event and run side by side, so you can watch every car going head
As for cars, there's ones as old as Sandro Munari's Stratos HF, to as new as Solberg's Fiesta RS and Sordo's Mini. So I may have inadvertently beat you to it.

Yes, I've seen that. It's too bad Trackmania won't run on my computer or I would have participated. It's wonderful to have a program that can save laps and combine them into a race. But tell me, does Trackmania actually support point-to-point races? xkoranate doesn't and it's very annoying for the rallying, because now I have to simulate a number of laps to get the desired race distance (a lap in xkoranate can only be so long) which makes it less realistic.
In fact, your idea is even better than mine, because I assume people find it more fun to actually run the races themselves, rather than to have a computer program run 'their' car. Of course, the Trackmania championship doesn't have real-life drivers and teams... I plan to just keep running the series no one is joining myself, but I'll post about that maybe later, in the future. I'm only going to open the lowest-level series up to participation at first anyway, to make sure the storyline/realism aren't messed up too badly.

Ferrarist wrote:This sounds pretty ambitious, but do you simulate all series with Xkoranate? If you do so, could you tell me how you assign the skills to every driver?

BTW, one thing Xkoranate clearly lacks is a proper database with all drivers. Maybe we should start creating one...

Yes, I simulate everything with xkoranate. What I do with the skill points is I take half for the driver, half for the car, for a maximum of 10 (xkoranate won't go further than 10, it seems - too bad, it hampers realism). So for example, a good driver in a bad car would have 5 points for the driver + 1 for the car = 6 points. This goes for acceleration, cornering and reliability. (I think there should be more different skills...) And yes, such a database would be a good idea!

Waris wrote:

kostas22 wrote:Your idea for the WRC has already been set in motion here. Because of the nature of TM, everybody sets their times on their own, but all times are combined into a single event and run side by side, so you can watch every car going head
As for cars, there's ones as old as Sandro Munari's Stratos HF, to as new as Solberg's Fiesta RS and Sordo's Mini. So I may have inadvertently beat you to it.

Yes, I've seen that. It's too bad Trackmania won't run on my computer or I would have participated. It's wonderful to have a program that can save laps and combine them into a race. But tell me, does Trackmania actually support point-to-point races? xkoranate doesn't and it's very annoying for the rallying, because now I have to simulate a number of laps to get the desired race distance (a lap in xkoranate can only be so long) which makes it less realistic.
In fact, your idea is even better than mine, because I assume people find it more fun to actually run the races themselves, rather than to have a computer program run 'their' car. Of course, the Trackmania championship doesn't have real-life drivers and teams... I plan to just keep running the series no one is joining myself, but I'll post about that maybe later, in the future. I'm only going to open the lowest-level series up to participation at first anyway, to make sure the storyline/realism aren't messed up too badly.

Yes, Trackmania does both point-to-point and multilap races. If anything point-to-point racing is far more popular in-game than multilaps are.

And how old is your computer? Even my little 10 inch netbook can run Trackmania! Have you tried turning the settings down? The defaults can be too high on lower spec machines but if you turn it down it usually works better.

kostas22 wrote:And how old is your computer? Even my little 10 inch netbook can run Trackmania! Have you tried turning the settings down? The defaults can be too high on lower spec machines but if you turn it down it usually works better.

Well, it's not that it won't run at all, I've run it in the past but the graphics were terrible and motion was choppy, especially online, and it fried my computer's CPU. My computer is not that old, it's from 2007 or thereabouts, and it has a decent 3.2GHz processor, but the graphics card is awful. I'll try again and see if I can get it to run with lower settings, I guess...

Waris wrote:
Yes, I simulate everything with xkoranate. What I do with the skill points is I take half for the driver, half for the car, for a maximum of 10 (xkoranate won't go further than 10, it seems - too bad, it hampers realism). So for example, a good driver in a bad car would have 5 points for the driver + 1 for the car = 6 points. This goes for acceleration, cornering and reliability. (I think there should be more different skills...) And yes, such a database would be a good idea!

I use the following algorithm for driver skills:

Let's take the 2004 Formula One season for example. Since this is a formula series, we'll use a maximum of 10 points for each skill. So as Michael Schumacher was world champion in 2004, he'll get 10 points for acceleration and 10 for cornering. Reliability will be dealt with later. Now I divide his 148 with 10, which is 14,8. I round up, thus the following drivers lose one skill point for every 15 points he is behind Schumacher. Now we assign the points to Rubens Barrichello. First I subtract Rubinho's 114 points from Schumi's 148, which makes 34. Now I divide it by, thus I'll have to take 3.4 points away from Rubens. You can subtract them how you want. You can subtract 1.7 points from acceleration and 1.7 from cornering. Or 2 from cornering and 1.7 from acceleration or whatever. As long as you subtract 3.4 points. And that's how you do it with every driver. Subtract his points from the championship leader's points and divide them by the highest possible skill number (I usually take 10 for formula series, 8 for touring car series and so on.). While this makes the seasons highly historical, the outcome can still be ahistorical. I once had Christijan Albers win the 2004 DTM season for example, whereas in reality, Mattias Ekström won the championship.

It sounds highly complicated, so perhaps an anglophone poster should translate it for you.